19 Sep Immersive Safe Ocean Technologies
Prof. Dr. Eng. Evangelos Markopoulos and Prof. Dr. Eng. Mika Luimula announced through an academic journal paper the term Immersive Safe Ocean Technologies (ISOT). The term has been invented at the Game Lab of the Turku University of Applied Sciences (TUAS) Research Group of Futuristic Interactive Technologies, after extensive research on developing and integrating VR and AR technologies in major maritime and shipping challenges.
Safety at sea technologies and strategies contribute to maritime operations safety with a positive impact on the environment due to the prevention of maritime accidents and the reduction of sea pollution. Such technologies can create Blue Oceans strategies for organizational sustainability and profitability. The immersive element of these technologies through VR and AR extend such Blue Ocean Strategies into Green Ocean Strategies where operational effectiveness promotes environmental sustainability. Green Ocean Strategies shift innovation towards sustainability, aiming to address social, corporate, and customer needs and expectations. Organizations adapting Green Ocean Strategies can achieve high ESG (environmental, social, and governance) ratings that impact significantly on their reputation to clients and investors. Immersive Safe Oceans Technologies bridge Blue Ocean Strategies with Green Ocean Strategies for maritime safety and clean oceans.
The MarISOT philosophy and its strong element of immersiveness in its VR and AR driven technologies extend business opportunities beyond Blue Ocean Strategies towards Green Ocean Strategies where operational effectiveness is driven by environmental sustainability while maintaining financial sustainability. MarISOT (Maritime ISOT) emphasizes primarily on safety at sea technologies and strategies that contribute towards effective maritime safety operations. MarISOT intends to positively impact major shipping environmental challenges on accident prevention and sea pollution reduction. Its cost-effective, portable technologies can be used on board just in time or in maritime training centers. Today MarISOT consists of four technologies namely (1) command bridge, (2) engine/machine room, (3) crane, and (4) fire safety, and the research keeps going.
Immersive Safe Oceans Technology is still at its very early stages. Prof. E. Markopoulos and Prof. M. Luimula focus has so far been on learning episode pilots and not yet on the backend system development. However, significant advances have been designed and expected to be implemented on both the hardware and software level, aligned with the VR technologies progression but also with the maritime sector maturity to adopt VR education especially on safety issues.
The MarISOT technology has been published at the Future Internet Journal:
Markopoulos, Evangelos.; Luimula, Mika. Immersive Safe Oceans Technology: Developing Virtual Onboard Training Episodes for Maritime Safety. Future Internet 2020, 12, 80. Available here.
For further reading: Mitigating Climate Change